I’ll admit to a certain amount of bias. Heck — I’ll admit to a whole lot of bias.

The notion of a world-class restaurant opening in a Courtyard Marriott boggles the imagination.

This is not to say I haven’t had perfectly fine stays at mid-level chains like Marriott, Radisson, Holiday Inn, Crowne Plaza and the like. Good places, in some cases offering a perfectly decent breakfast buffet, and even a concierge lounge. You travel with kids, mid-level hotels are places you get to know well. They do the job at a reasonable price. But when it comes to dining, as a rule they try to cater to the broadest demographic. And that means airline food — though at a (hopefully) more down-to-earth level.

Which is why James Republic comes as such a surprise, perhaps even a shock. Though it’s technically in the Courtyard Marriott, it’s a place apart. A space that exists on its own, the restaurant provides diners with no sense that a hotel is on the other side of the back bar. It is, indeed, an outdoor restaurant without actually being on the street. It’s open to the street on all sides, a room through which the ocean breezes waft, with a fine view of the increasing numbers of locals out for an evening promenade in born-again, newly trendy Downtown Long Beach.

The “James” of James Republic is Dean James Max, who’s been creating destination restaurants for Marriott for more than a decade, including 3030 Ocean in the Harbor Beach Marriott in Ft. Lauderdale, AMP 150 in the Marriott Cleveland, Latitude 41 in the Renaissance Columbus, Ohio and Parallel Post in Connecticut. The man does get around, landing most recently at the corner of First Street and Atlantic Avenue, where he’s built his menu around “local artisan products: organic, natural, sustainable” — all the buzz words of the moment.

Show up for breakfast, and you’ll find the meaning of all that buzz in tasty creations like the lamb shoulder potato hash, the short rib scramble with baby spinach and the egg sandwich made with Fiscalini white cheddar and Benton’s smoked bacon. Give Chef Max this much: he does like his small-batch producers, and he does use their ingredients well. I mean creamy organic grits with Italian parsley, and smoked salmon with Laurel Chenel goat cheese? This is good stuff. And not “hotel” at all.

Move onto lunch, and the sheer eclecticism of Max’s cooking leaps out, with a menu that offers everything from a smoked fish salad sandwich slathered with an insanely good spicy pepper and cilantro aioli to a ramen bowl with braised chicken, snap peas and a poached egg. From a vegan falafel taco with piquillo peppers to sublimely tasty Anson Mills polenta flavored with Bellwether cheese or even a grilled cauliflower “steak” with red quinoa, in this republic, vegetarians are treated as well as carnivores.

Warming up for dinner, a seat at the lively, happy bar is a good way station for those in the mood for the house version of Gin & Juice made, in this case, from Sonoma Uncle Val’s Botanical Gin, honeydew, cilantro and “local” grapefruit. Or maybe a Peachy Old Guy: market peaches, house made grenadine, peach bitters (really?) and 4 Roses Bourbon. There are alsoplenty of beers, divided into “Craft,” “Local Craft,” “Glass” and “Bottle.” Life is good with a properly chilled and poured Hoppy Poppy IPA, or maybe a fine Midas Touch from the crazy people at Dogfish in Delaware.

And then, it’s onto the dinner menu, which sort of, kind of, changes nightly. Or at least, some dishes change Which means they may or may not be serving the very tasty wahoo poke, a marinated seafood dish made from a fish that looks a lot like a mackerel but isn’t. It’s mixed with pureed avocado, peanuts, soy, seaweed and chili. It’s really good. So are the Pacific mussels with Chinese lop cheung sausage and chili-based Indonesian sambal.

Max seems to have a thing for cauliflower. Along with the cauliflower “steak,” he’s got a curried cauliflower soup with apple-raisin chutney. One night, he had a crispy Brussels sprout salad with Benton’s bacon and a very slow cooked egg. And then, it was gone. But his Mary’s roasted chicken with creamy Anson Mills oats seems to remain on the menu. Ditto on the grass-fed burger served with house pickled vegetables.

I wonder if Chef Max does room service as well. It could change my feeling about chain hotels.

Merrill Shindler is a Los Angeles-based freelance dining critic. Send him an email at mreats@aol.com.